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Blue Book Suggests the New Media Are the New Driving Force in China’s Social Development

The recently published Blue Book on China’s New Media suggested that, since 2011, the new media have been transforming in terms of their digital and online forms. They have also become the new driving force that impacts China’s social development in the following four areas: 1) Social capability. The number of instant messaging users has grown 17.7 percent since 2010, reaching 415 million, thus surpassing the number of users for search engines, online music, and Internet news. 2) Expression and Participation. The growth in microblog users suggested that more and more people use the new media to explore, express, and participate in social and political discussions. The data showed that the number of microblog users grew from 63 million at the end of 2010 to 274 million in June of 2012, which means that over 50 percent of the Internet users use microblogs. 3) Rapid growth in commercial applications. The rapid growth in using online stores, banking, and shopping suggested that the new media have matured in the development of social applications. 4) Solid growth in cultural and social capabilities. The new media have become the cultural and entertainment platform for users to have access to online news, video, music, and games.

Source: Xinhua, October 4, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-10/04/c_113276781.htm

People’s Daily: Overseas Chinese Media Need to Report More about China

On September 15, 2012, Wang Chen, Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department, met with the overseas media partners of People’s Daily overseas edition. Wang urged the oversea’s China media partners to carry more news reports about China so that they could help promote understanding between China and the countries where the media are located. Wang commended the Chinese media, especially the overseas edition of People’s Daily, for gaining an increased power of discourse on the world stage through establishing working relationships with the overseas Chinese media in different countries. According to Wang, People’s Daily has reached complete coverage around the world and formed a unique advantage in broadcasting China’s voice overseas.

Source: People’s Daily, September 16, 2012
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2012/0916/c1026-19018967.html

Does Beijing’s Hard-Line Stance over the Diaoyu Islands Dispute Target the United States?

[Editor’s Note: Over the years and by agreement, China and Japan have remained silent on the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands issue. When Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced that the Japanese government would make a bid to buy the islands, the Chinese government took a strong stance on the situation even to the point where it demonstrated a willingness to start a war. A number articles in China’s state-run media see the “black hand” of the United States behind the scenes, “fanning the flames” of discord. The following are excerpts from articles that express China’s view of and response to what it sees as U.S. involvement.]

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Abortions in China Reach 13 Million a Year

China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission recently released statistics showing that there are over 13 million abortions in China every year, the highest in the world. Over 50 percent of the abortions are performed on women under 25 years old. College students are now considered a high risk group. The statistics also showed that only about 12 percent of China’s young people believe that they have adequate information about contraception. The State’s China National Radio commented that such behavior mirrors both society and the parents and may very well be the result of seeds that adults have sown.

Source: China National Radio, October 4, 2012
http://china.cnr.cn/xwwgf/201210/t20121004_511053320.shtml

China to Carry-Out Anti-Cult Propaganda and Education in the Sixth Five-year Law Publicity Plan

In August and September 2012, a number of local government departments and institutions posted a notice on their websites regarding the implementation of the plan to carry out anti-cult propaganda and education during the “sixth five-year” (2011-2015) law publicity work. China’s anti-cult propaganda and education work under the communist government is a pretext for discussing the struggle against “Falun Gong.” 

The notice is based a classified document [2012 issued #5] by The State Council Office of Cult Prevention and Treatment, the Ministry of Justice, and the National Office of Law Publicity. Chinascope has a copy of the original document. The document was initially issued to the following government entities on April 21, 2012: the Offices of Cult Prevention and Treatment; the Justice Department (Bureau); the Governance Office of Law Publicity and Observance from all Provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; the Law Publicity Offices from all ministries, commissions, departments and bureaus of the Central and National Government; and the Propaganda Divisions of the Work Committee of the Central Government Departments, the State Organs Work Committee, and the PLA General Political Department. Each local government entity incorporated its own specific measures into the notice posted on its website. 
In discussing the importance of the education program, the notice admitted that “the tenacity and recurring nature of the cult, particularly the support and utilization by the overseas Western hostile forces, (have determined) that the struggle is still very serious, complex and labile. ‘Falun Gong’ has frequently been adjusting its strategies and changing the means it uses to confront us and compete for the masses with us in collaboration with domestic ‘Falun Gong’ members.” 

Sources: Websites of the Qinghai University Propaganda Department, the Political and Law Department of Fuzhou City (Fujian Province); the Health Department of Qinghai Province, Gengyu Township of (Jiangshu Province), and others, August-September, 2012 
http://210.27.177.217/index.php?a=show&m=Article&id=290 http://www.fzpf.gov.cn/fzpfw/2012/0929/248942.html http://www.qhwst.gov.cn/ywgl/fajc/2012/09/21/1348221345879.html http://www.shuyang.gov.cn/shuyanggwz/infodetail/?infoid=9d5fc5d2-99d5-4084-bd26-485aa0005222&categoryNum=007

Party Officials Undergo Training to Improve Governance Skills

The China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong (CELAP) is a Shanghai-based national institution funded by the central government. Since its establishment in 2005, CELAP has conducted trainings in over 1,400 workshops and classes for close to 70,000 Party officials. At simulated press conferences or TV interviews, Party officials are asked direct questions such as “What do you think about the organ transplant situation in China?” “What are the pros and cons of planned parenthood?” or “Have Muslims in Ningxia ever been forced to eat during Ramadan?” The simulations are recorded so that teachers and students can play back the videos and critique the simulations.

Source: Xinhua, October 4, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2012-10/04/c_113278213.htm

A Communist Capitalist Sues President Obama

The Chinese-owned Ralls Corp. has added President Barack Obama as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging the U.S. government exceeded its authority in blocking the firm’s planned wind farm projects in Oregon near a Navy base. In an amended complaint, Ralls Corp. said Obama “acted in an unlawful and unauthorized manner” in citing national security grounds to order it to halt construction of four wind farm projects near the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility in Boardman, Oregon.

Two senior managers with the Chinese SANY Group, a private company and the largest construction machinery manufacturer in China incorporated Ralls Corp. in the United States. According to BBC Chinese, it’s believed that SANY has a military background, which may be related to its founder Liang Wengen, who had three years of experience in a Chinese military enterprise. There is no doubt that Liang, who, in 2011, was listed as China’s richest man, is a private sector entrepreneur with close ties to the government. Liang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2004 as the chairman of SANY. In 2007 and 2012, he became a representative of the 17th and 18th Congress of the CCP. Liang is said to be a likely alternate member of the Central Committee of the CCP, a group of 370 of the most politically powerful people in China. SANY is said to have an unwritten rule that anyone who wants to be promoted to a management position must submit an application to join the Party. Liang once said, “It was not until I started my own business that I realized that one can only fulfill his ideals by connecting himself to the cause of the Party.”

[Editor’s note: Foreign investment in U.S. companies is reviewable by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS recommended denial of the investment from China because the wind farms are all within or near the restricted air space of the naval training facility.]

Source: BBC Chinese, October 3, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2012/10/121003_sany_liang_wengen.shtml

Why Japan Dares to Be Aggressive on the Diaoyu Islands Issue

A Xinhua article offered an interpretation of Japan’s aggressive actions on the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands issue, saying that Japan is acting in concert with the U.S. strategic plan to contain China. The article further explained, “From the perspective of the geo-military strategy, Japan is the most important partner in the United States’ return to Asia. The Diaoyu Islands issue is a chess piece in U.S. hands. Japan has an ulterior motive in its act to ‘nationalize’ the Diaoyu Islands. Its purpose is to test China’s reaction to Japan’s cooperation with the U.S. plan to return to Asia. For some time now, the United States, along with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and other countries has been holding frequent joint military exercises in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, with the goal being to strengthen its strategic encirclement of China.” 

Source: Xinhua, September 30, 2012 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-09/30/c_123781185.htm